This system will promote conservative opinion on this forum and create a kind of a social bubble.

We can see that there were boards created recently that only allow for people with certain rank to participate and now it seems like the ranking system is being centralized by hand picking the sources.

Merit system is a good idea, but the sources seem like a problem here. You need to implement a system to create sources automatically, randomly if nothing else. Otherwise you can easily get into trouble by like-minded individuals being promoted and ones that have new, maybe radical, ideas never getting higher ranks.

We either need to create merit as something that has no effect on anything practical on this forum (similar to the trust system) or generate quite random sources. I am afraid that this forum will become very conservative as the time goes on if we keep adding these centralized features.

Trust me, the word “conservative”, used as either an adjective or a noun, is not ever going to describe anyone using this forum. ROFL

I didn't mean to associate it with political affiliation in US, if that is what confused you. I meant it as such that people could be conservative about Bitcoin development as we never know on which side these few sources might be in some future discussion. The problem is that whichever side they might pick in bigger numbers, people with the same opinion will rank faster than the ones that disagree with them.

How is it possible to ever know the leanings of anyone? Could it be used to form cliques? Sure, I guess it could but this forum has a bigger problem to worry about right now. Because of the price rally within the past couple of months, this forum has had a massive amount of new members spamming the forum attempting to gain rank so they can collect a little coin and cash in. They don’t care about cryptocurrency at all and are destroying the forum with useless posts. I’ve said the most ridiculous shit I could think of in a few threads attempting to get some of them to contradict me and reply. All they ever do is post a one liner and move on. Much of the real brain power using this forum moved on long ago because of this issue. It’s not going to be easy but at least the admins are trying something before the forum crumbles down around their feet from the weight of scammers, spammers and bounty hunters.

I’m giving away merit (the link is in my sig line). I haven’t agreed with the opinion of most of the people I have given merit to so far. The only thing I have agreed with is their sincere desire to actively be here and interact with people to increase the quality of discourse. To sum it up, I think your wrong.

It is a common myth that Bitcoin is ruled by a majority of miners. This is not true. Bitcoin miners "vote" on the ordering of transactions, but that's all they do. They can't vote to change the network rules.

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I am especially eager to have merit sources in sub-communities such as the local sections.

However I was wondering if I or some other guy with higher rank than mine apply for merit sources by collecting 10 high-quality posts from Japanese local board, is there someone who can read Japanese and judge their quality?

Also, can you clarify from which rank one can apply for merit sources?

But it becomes much harder for members in small local community to make their rank up.

Yes and no. In a smaller community, less sMerit is available, but there are also less posts competing for Merit.As long as sources are present in all local sections, size should not be an issue. Maybe competition is even so much lower in smaller groups that merit is actually easier to get.

I usually don't frequent my local section (discussing bitcoin and related topics in english give me the ability to communicate with almost everyone across the globe, discussing them only with a few that happen to speak my language limit this greatly), but I've been browsing it over the last day and have rewarded a portion of my merit to local posters.

How is it possible to ever know the leanings of anyone? Could it be used to form cliques? Sure, I guess it could but this forum has a bigger problem to worry about right now. Because of the price rally within the past couple of months, this forum has had a massive amount of new members spamming the forum attempting to gain rank so they can collect a little coin and cash in. They don’t care about cryptocurrency at all and are destroying the forum with useless posts. I’ve said the most ridiculous shit I could think of in a few threads attempting to get some of them to contradict me and reply. All they ever do is post a one liner and move on. Much of the real brain power using this forum moved on long ago because of this issue. It’s not going to be easy but at least the admins are trying something before the forum crumbles down around their feet from the weight of scammers, spammers and bounty hunters.

I’m giving away merit (the link is in my sig line). I haven’t agreed with the opinion of most of the people I have given merit to so far. The only thing I have agreed with is their sincere desire to actively be here and interact with people to increase the quality of discourse. To sum it up, I think your wrong.

Fair enough. It might not be the most pressing issue right now for Bitcoin.I do still think it is very possible for this to happen, but I will leave it for now as it isn't case right now, at least not too much.And I hope the time proves me wrong

You talk only about MeritYou forgot about BitcoinSoon button Demeritnew rank will never join

If you talk about Bitcoins sensibly, you will get merits. If those new members wanted to join just to spam and increase the ranks based on number of posts (irrespective of quality), it is better if they never join.

This is quite a beautiful change. I can already see the spamming slowing down from this. What worries me the most is the post quality of the people who already have a high activity ranking that they got by spamming. I understand you might not want to put up a de-merit system, but perhaps merit points could be connected to other functionalities of the forums as well. For example, points should go down if a moderator takes down one of your posts for a reason related to spamming or non-constructive posts. I also believe stricter guidelines should be required for defining what a constructive post is. A post that answer's the OP's question should not be considered constructive if the answer has already been posted multiple times in the thread. A system such as this one would tie in well with merit.

Ha ha, sounds like the East Europe censorship. My countryman would love people like you!

I fail to see how my post comes across as censorship. I am not talking about not letting people post their opinions on threads, I am talking about people who are posting information that has already been posted by others before in the same thread. There is no point other than spamming for doing this. Imagine a post where the OP is asking how to send a bitcoin using some wallet followed by a bunch of posters all answering by saying "use the send button" and so on. I have seen multiple posts like these before which consist of people trying to farm those posts.

to get a member you need 10 merits and to get a full member of 100 merits. x10 Carl! just like people's desire to grow bitcoin price! Was it originally intended to donate, sell or beg the merit?

Before even my time here bitcoins were chucked about like pills at a rave. Without that charity bitcoin may of been just a toy for a handful of Linux nerds, take that further, without lazlo would BTC of been a currency? What about Silk Road?

Learn about the history of bitcoin, read old old posts. Then bring up some discussion about it, some old hands will likely be impressed and will hand out merits

I decided that the previous allocation was too unfair in this area, so everyone with activity >= 775 got 500 more merit if they didn't already have 1000 merit (and also Lutpin). No extra sMerit, though.

And what about the Legendary gap?

Your boost to them means people who had almost 1,500 less activity than me are now equal in merits.

I decided that the previous allocation was too unfair in this area, so everyone with activity >= 775 got 500 more merit if they didn't already have 1000 merit (and also Lutpin). No extra sMerit, though.

And what about the Legendary gap?

Your boost to them means people who had almost 2,000 less activity than me are now equal in merits.

I feel your pain man. I would give you merit for this, but I am merit poor myself. Need those merits to rank up to Sr. Member and stuff.So I am just going to say+1You deserve more merits

As long as sources are present in all local sections, size should not be an issue.

Yes that's what I wanted to know, do you know what the distribution of sources is?

I completely agree with you about the benefit for collecting information in English, and your redistribution of merit to your local community,but I think such a redistribution should be built in a system.

I was afraid that small communities will be extinct sooner or later unless sources are distributed appropriately.

But it becomes much harder for members in small local community to make their rank up.

Yes and no. In a smaller community, less sMerit is available, but there are also less posts competing for Merit.As long as sources are present in all local sections, size should not be an issue. Maybe competition is even so much lower in smaller groups that merit is actually easier to get.

I usually don't frequent my local section (discussing bitcoin and related topics in english give me the ability to communicate with almost everyone across the globe, discussing them only with a few that happen to speak my language limit this greatly), but I've been browsing it over the last day and have rewarded a portion of my merit to local posters.

I think you are right. Spending more time, more efforts for each post, make your post a better one, in terms of quality. By doing this repeatedly, your knowledge, skills, etc. will be sharpened. It's also good in English practice, too, if you are not native English users. It's good generally. Meriting me if possible, please

I decided that the previous allocation was too unfair in this area, so everyone with activity >= 775 got 500 more merit if they didn't already have 1000 merit (and also Lutpin). No extra sMerit, though.

And what about the Legendary gap?

Your boost to them means people who had almost 2,000 less activity than me are now equal in merits.

I feel your pain man. I would give you merit for this, but I am merit poor myself. Need those merits to rank up to Sr. Member and stuff.So I am just going to say+1You deserve more merits

You don't understand the system fella. Merits never reduce sMerits do and those are what you need to pay forward, that is how the system works. Hoarding sMerits does nothing

Hi, I am a recent member of the forum so don´t expect very intelligent questions. I just read about the merit system but, as I understand it, if I make a question in the forum and someone gives a good answer I can´t do anything to reward him or her. I would have to wait for another member that has merit to give away and notice that I have been helped.

Hi, I am a recent member of the forum so don´t expect very intelligent questions. I just read about the merit system but, as I understand it, if I make a question in the forum and someone gives a good answer I can´t do anything to reward him or her. I would have to wait for another member that has merit to give away and notice that I have been helped.

Your posts aren't terrible and your name made me giggle. So have 2 merits. Those will stay on your account but you also now have 1 sMerit that you can say thank you to someone with..

Hi, I am a recent member of the forum so don´t expect very intelligent questions. I just read about the merit system but, as I understand it, if I make a question in the forum and someone gives a good answer I can´t do anything to reward him or her. I would have to wait for another member that has merit to give away and notice that I have been helped.

Right! as a result of that, please remember that you need help from lots of users in the BCT forum to move up to higher levels, in your case is Member level. After you ranked up to higher levels, you will have more and more merits, correspond to sMerits. And at that time, please help others by giving them sMerits you have. That's the way our community help each other to make the forum a better place, community-driven forum.

Hi, I am a recent member of the forum so don´t expect very intelligent questions. I just read about the merit system but, as I understand it, if I make a question in the forum and someone gives a good answer I can´t do anything to reward him or her. I would have to wait for another member that has merit to give away and notice that I have been helped.

You can make good posts and earn some merits for yourself. Then you can give those merits to deserving posts. Get noticed by merit sources by making quality sources, they are watching you. Also check this https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2832127.0 , it mentions threads where others are offering merits for quality posts.